Akira Maeda comes to the ring and challenges Inoki (12/06/85)

 

Extra for sure, as the set up for the feud

 

Antonio Inoki & Keichi Yamada vs. Nobuhiko Takada & Osamu Kido (02/05/86)

 

This was the start of the feud, and was pretty great with Yamada playing the role of roided Kikuchi as he takes a pretty sizable beating and firing back on Kido and Tanaka, Inoki is also really great as fired up legend. Nomination

 

Antonio Inoki, Tatsumi Fujinami, Kengo Kimura, Umanosuke Ueda & Kantaro Hoshino vs. Akira Maeda, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Osamu Kido, Nobuhiko Takada & Kazuo Yamazaki (03/26/86)

 

One of those matches which not a lot of explanation is needed. Will finish top 5 assuredly. So much heat and excellent wrestling, plus a bunch of cool story spots like Ueda sacrificing himself to eliminate Maeda. Can’t say enough about this matches greatness. Slam dunk disc selection

 

5-on-5 Challenge (05/01/86):

Keichi Yamada (Liger) vs. Nobuhiko Takada

Nobuhiko Takada v. Seiji Sakaguchi

Seiji Sakaguchi vs. Kazuo Yamazaki

Osamu Kido vs. Seiji Sakaguchi

Osamu Kido vs. Shiro Koshinaka

Kengo Kimura vs. Osamu Kido

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Kengo Kimura

Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Akira Maeda vs. Tatsumi Fujinami

 

Your early sections of this match were a little underwhelming, I liked Takada v. Yamada’s match fine, but your Sakaguchi sections didn’t do a ton for me. Kido v. Koshinaka and Kido v. Kimura were cool shit, but the match really kicked in gear with Fujiwara. Kimura busts him open and you get bloody Fujiwara kicking ass. Fujiwara v. Fujinami was epic with both guys bleeding tons, and you get the awesome blood stoppage to Maeda v. Fujinami. You have to treat this as one long match, and it is a nomination

Antonio Inoki & Keichi Yamada vs. Nobuhiko Takada & Osamu Kido (02/05/86)

- Phil was right... Yamada takes an ass beating. Takada and Kido just shrug off any offense he tries to produce and kick him square in the face or gut. This is sort of two matches in one.... kicking and slapping the fuck out of each other combined with laying around on the mat. However, when Inoki counters a Takada kick into a leg grapevine (?) then the matwork sort of makes sense. This should definitely move forward but I am not going to call it a slam dunk pick. I could see it dropping off the list because of the huge amount of shit out there.

 

 

Antonio Inoki, Tatsumi Fujinami, Kengo Kimura, Umanosuke Ueda & Kantaro Hoshino vs. Akira Maeda, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Osamu Kido, Nobuhiko Takada & Kazuo Yamazaki (03/26/86)

- The crowd is fucking hot for this one. The crowd reaction will put some of those earlier "classics" to shame for sure. The first fifteen minutes before Yamazaki's elimination are pretty great allowing everyone to shine and popping the crowd with some fucking stiff moves. I can forgive the sloppiness of Kimura's elimination due to the whipping that Maeda gave him prior to. I don't really care for the floor-touching stip as the air left the room when Fujiwara and Fujinami were eliminated but the Maeda-Ueda elim was pretty sweet. I knew INoki would be the last man standing but was completely caught off guard by Takada's exit and Kido left defending the UWF name. The best way to describe this match is EPIC. I don't know if it will be my #1 but it was pretty fucking great.

 

 

5-on-5 Challenge (05/01/86):

I am going to watch each match individually t osee if any stand out as a great single but I will judge the whole as well. This is a wierd way to watch a match and I don't know how you argue for or against it.

 

Keichi Yamada (Liger) vs. Nobuhiko Takada

- The matwork and counters in this were cool as shit. There were some Pete Roberts-Masa Fuchi type cool shit going on. Fuck, Takada's kicks toward the end with the Yamada counter to the figre-four was a thing of beauty. The end tstretch where you got the feeling that Yamada may be able to pull it off was also awesome. Then to see Takada's face in disgust as Yamda kicks out after the back suplex and ultimately putting it away with the leg bar. Shit, if the whole thing didn't move forward, I would be tempted to put this one in as a stand-alone.

 

Nobuhiko Takada v. Seiji Sakaguchi

- This wasn't much of a match but it is understandable after the battle Takda went through. After missing a move from the top riope, Seiji puts this away with the backbreaker. This match actually puts Yamada over even more since he should not have given Takada the back and forth contest that ensued.

 

Seiji Sakaguchi vs. Kazuo Yamazaki

- Another match that wasn't much, and since Takada did not put up much of a fight, Seiji disposes of Yamazaki in about 6 minutes but Seiji does seem to be favoring the leg.

 

Osamu Kido vs. Seiji Sakaguchi

- Kido wins in about 4 minutes after a quick small package. Nothing to see here.

 

Osamu Kido vs. Shiro Koshinaka

- Shit, Koshinaka takes no time in taking this to the outside, first attacking Kido outside the ring and then following up later and piledriving Seiji on the outside. It didn't take long to reciover though and I want Phil to explain how it is ok here but not in a Harley Race match. I am a little disappointed that this teased wild brawl but ended up being a so-so mat match. I don't understand how Kido won the match but I am guessing it was because Koshinaka was outside the ring longer.

 

Kengo Kimura vs. Osamu Kido

- Another quick match but I can understand why since Kido got his ass kicked in the last match.

 

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Kengo Kimura

- Fuck what a nasty piledriver. This was super fun with Fujiwara getting busted open and Kimura going to town on the cut. I love Fujiwara's counter to the sharp-shooter using his head to flip out of it. Fuck, this was victory through guts because Fujiwara was getting his ass beat.

 

Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara

- I am siappointed that Fujinami is choosing to go with the chinlock instead of exploiting the cut and kicking the fuck out of Fujiwara. I understand the strategy and you see it come into play as Fujiwara shows clear desparation in trying to battle through it but it isn't the most exciting way to follow the Kimura match. Fuck, just as I typed it, Fujiwara decides to continue the fight outside and make Fujinami a bloody mess. The backslide ending kind of sucked because Fujiwara finally evened up the odds.

 

Akira Maeda vs. Tatsumi Fujinami

- This is more like it. Maeda's first move... a fucking kick straight to Fujinami's bloody head. Maeda just destroys Fujinami here and he ends up eliciting the same sympathy you had for Fujiwara in the last match. The ending was out of nowehere but made sense. Fujinami was getting his ass kicked.

 

As individual matches, only the first one felt like a nom. Together, this has a real shot as my number one as it was such an emotional roller coaster where each elimination was logical and made sense. The different styles really helped this along as well as they saved the blood and brawling for the last 20 minutes or so. Great slam dunk pick.